Judge grants Strauss-Kahn bail

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was granted bail after agreeing to post $US1 million ($941,970) cash, submit to constant surveillance under house arrest and wear an ankle monitoring bracelet as he awaits trial on sexual assault charges.

The leading French politician resigned earlier on Thursday as managing director of the International Monetary Fund, saying he must devote all his energy to trying to clear himself of charges he sexually assaulted and tried to rape a New York hotel maid.

His lawyers, who lost an earlier bid on Monday to see him freed on bail, said he would spend one more night in the notorious Rikers Island jail on New York’s East River before being released on Friday under house arrest.

“We want to express our pleasure that the judge has made this decision, it’s great relief to the family to be able to have him with them," Strauss-Kahn’s lawyer William Taylor told journalists after the hearing.

“He is going back to Rikers tonight and we expect he will be released tomorrow," Taylor added.

Judge Michael Obus vowed to release Strauss-Kahn from Rikers only after the former IMF chief also agreed to an insurance bond of $US5 million ($A4.71 million), to surrender all travel documents and to submit to guarded home detention.

The 62-year-old will be monitored in a Manhattan apartment 24 hours a days, seven days a week by video surveillance equipment with at least one armed guard with him at all times, a New York court heard.

The bail hearing came just hours after Strauss-Kahn resigned from the IMF, vowing to prove he was innocent of the alleged attack on a 32-year-old chambermaid in his luxury New York hotel suite on Saturday.

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Obus was to sign the bail agreement during renewed court proceedings on Friday, paving the way for the money to be handed over and for Strauss-Kahn to be released.

He was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday and will face trial on charges of sexual assault and attempted rape on June 7.

An IMF board meeting is under way to discuss options for his successor.

The board’s 24 members represent the 187 IMF member nations, either as individuals for the largest economies and IMF shareholders such as the United States, or for regional groupings of smaller economies.